Harvard legal expert slams Trump's 'desperate' Georgia motion
Donald Trump's lawyers attempted to undo the full report of the special grand jury in Fulton County as part of a court motion this week. But according to Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe, the motion was essentially nothing.
The motion asks that the judge "preclude any state prosecutor agency from presenting or utilizing any evidence or testimony derived by the Special Purpose Grand Jury." MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell noted that it goes against a Georgia state law.
"I was a little worried at first, I thought it was going to be — someone said it was a 485-pound document. It turned out to be 485 pages. Most of them were just filler it was very easy and a quick read over dinner, in fact," Tribe explained. "It doesn't say much of anything. It makes bizarre claims. It says that Judge Robert McBurney was really unfair. It doesn't show anything about a supposedly unfair. On the contrary, he ruled quite often against things that Fani Willis wanted to do. It asked to have Fani Willis, and her whole office removed because they were illegal or unfair. But that effort was already made by the fake electors, and they were quickly turned away by the Georgia courts. There is really nothing here. It is just air."
He went on to say that he thinks it's another attempt by Trump to "delay," which is something Trump tries to do frequently in his cases, Tribe said.
"You could see that it shows desperation, except I can't believe that the lawyers expect anything other than a slap down," he explained. "But undoubtedly instructed by their client to delay, delay, delay. That is his go-to strategy. They did their best. And I feel sorry for them. There is no there, there. In fact, the patience of the judicial system has got to be wearing thin. I mean this is his technique everywhere. Throw everything against the wall. Hope something will stick."
One example he cites is the Trump lawyers claiming that there is too much vagueness in the laws about these legal bodies and that it was designed that way to trap ordinary Americans.
"There are not really designed to insist that the laws structuring the criminal justice system meets some special standard of, you know, clarity and predictability," said Tribe. "These laws, setting up the special grand jury are no vaguer than the others. It is a standard technique, not often used, but there's nothing wrong with it. And the main point is it is not a trial. It is simply part of the investigation. The special grand jury is an investigatory body. That is why it cannot return an indictment. He is just jumping the gun predicting that somehow he will be able to succeed in getting useful delay, but I don't think he is going to get much out of it.
See the full comments from Professor Tribe below or at the link here.
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